Fact Check: 2024 Dev Diwali Fireworks Falsely Shared as 2025 Maha Kumbh
A viral video claiming to show a fireworks display from the 2025 Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj is actually from the 2024 Dev Diwali celebrations in Varanasi
The 2025 Prayagraj Maha Kumbh Mela concluded on 26 February 2025, on the day of Maha Shivaratri (here, here). Amid this, a video clip (here, here, here, and here) showing a spectacular fireworks display at a riverbank (ghat) is going viral on social media, claiming to be from the 2025 Maha Kumbh. In this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
The archived version of this post can be found here.
Claim: Video shows a spectacular fireworks show held during the 2025 Maha Kumbh.
Fact: This video has no connection to the 2025 Prayagraj Maha Kumbh Mela. The video shows a spectacular fireworks show held at the ghats of the River Ganga during the Dev Diwali celebrations in Varanasi on 15 November 2024. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the details of this viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search using keyframes from the video. This search led us to the same video (archived) uploaded on an Instagram page named ‘photographycliclucknow’ on 15 November 2024. According to the description of this video, the visuals are related to the Dev Diwali celebrations held in Varanasi. As this video is from November 2024 and predates the commencement of the 2025 Maha Kumbh on 13 January 2025, it is evident that this video is not from the 2025 Maha Kumbh.
During this search, we also found that the same video was shared in November 2024 by many social media users on Facebook, YouTube (here, here), and Instagram (here, here, and here), claiming it to show visuals of the Dev Diwali celebrations held in Varanasi in November 2024.
News reports about the 2024 Dev Diwali celebrations held in Varanasi can be seen here, here, here, and here.
There are no reports of any fireworks show being held during the 45-day religious congregation at the 2025 Maha Kumbh. Additionally, we scanned the official website and social media handles of the 2025 Maha Kumbh (here, here, here, and here). However, we could not find any news or visuals of fireworks shows at the 2025 Maha Kumbh on these handles. On 26 February 2025, the final day of the 2025 Maha Kumbh, the Indian Air Force conducted a spectacular air show over the Mela premises (here).
To sum it up, a 2024 Dev Diwali fireworks show from Varanasi is being falsely shared as visuals from the 2025 Maha Kumbh.
(This article was first written by Akshay Kumar Appani for Factly, and republished by Deccan Chronicle as part of the Shakti Collective Fact Check initiative)